The woman behind Pippa’s floral flourish

Save

Save

Pippa Middleton and her new husband James Matthews with their bridesmaids and pageboys at St Mark’s Church surrounded by roses, peonies and sweet peas. It was the fabulous displays of flowers that almost stole the
show at the society wedding of the year, writes Anna TyzackCredit:
WPA Pool / Justin Tallis/Getty Images

Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

It was a pretty dress, an elegant up-do and an adorable collection of bridesmaids and pageboys but it was the flowers that made Pippa Middleton’s wedding look so perfect. They were everywhere – a haze of peonies, sweet peas and English roses, climbing the doorway of St Mark’s Church, Englefield, twisting around the pillars and pews and in garlands around the bridesmaids’ heads. “They took hours to create and perfect,” explains Sue Barnes, of Lavender Green Flowers, who was responsible for this picture-perfect floral backdrop. “The designs started at the lychgate, as Pippa entered, and journeyed throughout the ceremony – it was a labour of love.”

Most of us have never heard of Lavender Green Flowers but the Middletons knew they were in the safest of hands. Barnes, who grew up in south-east London, has been quietly decorating society weddings and events for the past two decades; she is responsible for the flowers in the “VVIP” areas at Chelsea Flower Show, at Royal Ascot and the tennis championships at Queens and Wimbledon. “We did the [Earl and Countess of] Wessexs’ wedding in 1999 so we were at the top of the tree then and that’s where we’ve stayed,” she explains, when we meet in her conservatory-style shop on Fulham Road in south-west London. “I remember Prince Edward making me a cup of coffee in the private apartments of Windsor Castle and having to pinch myself.”

Sue with a spring bouquetCredit:
Andrew Crowley

It’s easy to see why Sue would put a bride such as Pippa instantly at ease. She is a mother of five, warm, gentle, calm and endlessly knowledgeable about flowers. And she is very discreet, refusing to divulge any detail about Pippa’s wedding – or confirm whether the Middletons paid £15,000 for her services, as has been suggested in the press. Her wedding flowers can cost anything from £500 to £100,000, she explains, before coyly admitting that the bill almost always exceeds the average £672 that a bride spends on flowers.

Every weekend this summer, Barnes will be creating a floral wonderland for a bride, sometimes even two – Pippa had to share her with another bride. “It’s floral architecture rather than floristry,” she explains. “We build big structures, we change environments and at weddings our flowers put the bride’s stamp wherever the eye can see.”

If you’re spending £40,000 on a dress you don’t want the flowers to muck it up

Barnes, however, is not a florist. She’s a highly efficient and creative businesswoman, not unlike Pippa’s mother, Carole, who can deliver exactly the polished look her A-list clients desire. “If I were a florist I’d be worrying about what shape oasis I should go for and which flowers are my favourite but I start with a blank canvas and create something that is right for that bride,” she says. “If you’re spending £5,000 or £40,000 on your dress, you don’t want the flowers to muck it up.”

From a warehouse in Windsor her 40-strong team, which includes her husband, David, and three of her children, build lavish floral stage sets and then pack them into vans to install in situ. They can decorate a venue in less than two hours.

“The public leave the Natural History Museum at 6pm and when the bride arrives at 7pm we will have transformed the cavernous space into somewhere romantic and fragrant – with the bride’s identity firmly on it,” she says.

Royal favourite: Lavender Green FlowersCredit:
Andrew Crowley

Flowers are in Barnes’s blood – her mother owned a florist in south-east London – but she initially opted for a career in the City, first in finance and then at a marketing agency, where she would sketch during meetings to show clients what was being proposed.

After the birth of her second child in 1991, she decided to change careers and open a florist in Windsor, discovering how reassuring brides found it to see a sketch of themselves with their flowers. Two years later she scaled up when a customer asked if she could do flowers for a wedding on a budget of “no more than £32,000”. “I said we could probably do something – and when he left I punched the air,” she remembers.

Many of the young women who walk into her studio are clear-thinking professionals who don’t necessarily know how they’d like their wedding flowers to look. She asks them to define in four words how they’d like guests to feel at their wedding and tests every flower and arrangement she comes up with against their suggestions.

You’re only as good as your last job so I always try to over-deliver

Then she sketches the bride with her bouquet, in her wedding dress and hairstyle to show the effect the flowers will create. “They’ve got to work with the silhouette, dress the dress, not compete or overtake it,” she says. “If you’re a size 8 and your bouquet has been made for a size 22 it’s going to look like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.”

The flowers for the bridal party and the church tie in with the bride’s bouquet and flatter the architecture of the church or venue rather than conceal it, and then she often suggests something totally different for the reception. “I like to keep surprising the guests – things should get better and better,” she says.

It didn’t fall to Barnes to decorate Pippa’s “porta-palace”, the orangery-style glass marquee used for her reception on the lawns of her parents’ home in Bucklebury in Berkshire. Djordje Varda, a floral designer based in Saint Barths, scored that job. But she was not surprised by Pippa’s choice of marquee as glass structures are all the rage, she says. “They make the most of a beautiful garden and a far-reaching view.”

‘We did the Wessexs’ wedding and we were at the top of the tree and that’s where we’ve stayed’, says SueCredit:
Andrew Crowley

Beautifying them with flowers is a challenge, however, due to the sheer scale. “You’re decorating the whole environment,” she explains. “Everything you do must be bigger, in proportion to the landscape or these marquees can look like St Pancras.” Big does not have to mean brash. Barnes prefers classic and timeless floral designs over the sculptural “Prada” look that has been trendy of late. “I call it ‘big bum floristry’,” she says, scathingly. “If I see another flower wall I will beat myself up. It’s just over the top. I like creating things that will still look good in photographs in 20 years’ time.”

This is presumably why the Royal family keeps going back to her. It’s a huge honour, she says, to work at so many society events but during wedding season she finds it difficult to sleep. “You’re only as good as your last job,” she says. “So I always try to over-deliver.” She avoids working with bridezillas – there are a lot of them around – and she tries to escapes to her farmhouse in Spain once a month to unwind.

She has to squeeze these trips between weddings, though, as whenever possible, she likes to deliver the bride’s bouquet herself. This is not just because she enjoys witnessing their reaction to their flowers (there are usually tears) but, more importantly, because she likes to teach them how to carry it. “I show them how to hold it with their shoulders down, away from their face,” she says. “If you carry it too high you can end up looking as if you’ve got an ice cream cone beneath your chin.”